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Tuesday, 7 May 2013

October Babies Now Released

On the 10th October 2012 we rescued an entire litter of four hoglets (who were still suckling) and their mother. If you didn't read their story click here.

Mother and four hoglets

It's unusual to have such young hoglets come to us that late in the year and even more unusual for their mother to come with them. It caused a slight problem in that none of our indoor hutches were big enough for such a large family. So we had to be a little inventive and create a large indoor run using a pet carrier as a house and sheets of A2 mount board as the walls.

Their new home

Thankfully their mother wasn't too stressed and did a great job of looking after them. They grew and grew and soon we were able to take them away from her and she was released (during a mild spell) into a gorgeous garden that belongs to Di and Rob (two of our fab carers).

Just a small part of Mum hogs new home

Soon those little prickly balls were big prickly balls, well three of them were; you always get a runt in the litter. So these three were packed off to the same garden as their mother to fatten up and hopefully hibernate.

The little hog who stayed at HQ rather than go 'out' with his brothers and sisters

They spent the winter putting on weight and eventually when all were nearing or over 800 grams they were placed outside in a large escape proof run.

What a run!

The problem was there was already a hedgehog in there hibernating. So a wall was created centrally along the length of the run. They were given two lovely houses to live in and loads of interesting things to sniff in and around.

Their cosy new home

After a couple of days Di decided to check on them and started to root around in the hay filled houses. The couldn't be found anywhere! Out of desperation she decided to look in the hutch on the other side of the fence. To her astonishment all three had moved into the hog home with the hibernating hog in.

Four bodies in one hog house - not a lot of room left!

We decided to leave them together as they appear to be getting on and Di took down the wall. All four continued to live together until they were released over the bank holiday weekend. Food will be left out for them and they will still have access to the houses. So with fingers crossed they'll quickly make the adjustment to being wild hedgehogs.

A night camera has been set up to monitor the comings and goings over the next few weeks. So watch this space!